Experts said the conclusions from the research will allow better-informed wind farm design and decisions on planning consent.

Jan Matthiesen, director of offshore wind at the Carbon Trust, said: ‘Today marks the result of four years of collaborative work from a range of stakeholders.

‘All focused on bridging the gap between the theoretical and real understanding of how birds behave around an operational offshore wind farm.’

The Offshore Renewables Joint Industry Programme (ORJIP) bird collision avoidance study combined human observer-based tracking with a system that automatically recorded seabird movements at a working offshore wind farm.

Only six collisions with turbines were observed (Picture: Getty)

Radars were also used to record data 24 hours a day for two years.

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Matthiesen added: ‘ORJIP offshore wind has been designed to help contribute to the environmental evidence base to pave the way for a sustainable roll-out of UK offshore wind.

‘This study marks a significant step forward on this journey.’

In March 2018, offshore wind generated 12% of the UK’s total energy, – its highest contribution to date.

During the two years of fieldwork, a significant number of videos were recorded at a representative area of Vattenfall’s Thanet offshore wind farm off the Kent coast.

This resulted in the analysis of more than 600,000 videos, of which only 12,131 contained evidence of bird activity and only six collisions with turbines were observed.

The research was designed to generate robust, empirical evidence on the levels of avoidance behaviour to improve collision risk models (CRM), as researchers say that until now there was only limited evidence to substantiate the birds’ actual behaviour.

Thanet Offshore Wind Farm off the coast of Ramsgate in Kent was the world’s largest at one point (Picture PA)

Researchers spent two years investigating (Picture PA)

Piers Guy, UK country manager for Vattenfall, said: ‘This pioneering study, hosted at Vattenfall’s Thanet offshore wind farm, is a significant step forward in our understanding of the way in which seabirds avoid offshore wind turbines and comes at a crucial time as the next generation of wind turbines are designed and developed.

‘This research will support UK government plans to rapidly and sustainably grow the offshore wind sector by 2030.’

The collaborative study was commissioned by eleven leading offshore wind developers, The Crown Estate, The Crown Estate Scotland and Marine Scotland.

It was supported with funding from the British government and was managed by the Carbon Trust.

A spokesperson for the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, said: ‘With wind power providing over 15% of our electricity, today’s research shows that the UK’s Industrial Strategy is supporting the UK’s role as a global leader in renewables.

‘This important government funded study is reassuring for our wildlife and for the future development of wind power in the UK.’